getting ready for educa Berlin in December 2015

1. Playing for change
3rd of December 2015, educa Berlin (16:15-17:30, Room: DES31)
Dr Jenny Fisher @jennycfisher & Chrissi Nerantzi @chrissinerantzi
https://www.flickr.com/photos/21614692@N02/22392587928/sizes/z/

2. A warm welcome to our
playshop info presentation

3. “We are designed to be lifelong
players, built to benefit from
play at any age” (Brown, 2010,
48)

4. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7133/7623744452_7222654f38_b.jpg
Would you like to find out what this is all about? Then click next

5. Chrissi Nerantzi,
Academic Developer,
Dr Jenny Fisher
Senior Lecturer
@jennycfisher
Meet your playshop facilitators first…

6. “Play sets the stage for
cooperative socialization. It
nourishes the roots of trust,
empathy, caring and sharing”
(Brown, 2010: 197)

7. Our playshop plan
Part 1: Facilitators introduce workshop and playstations (5
mins)
Part 2: Delegates experience playful learning at 3 playstations
• Playstation 1: Making 20 mins (group 1)
• Playstation 2: Animating 20 mins (group 2)
• Playstation 3: Could play help? Design an activity 20
mins (group 1 and 2 together)
Part 3: Reflect on our experience and application to practice
(5 mins) use speed dating approach
playshop duration: 90 mins

8. How does this sound?

9. • Making is connecting (Gauntlett)
• Playing/Reflecting/Learning with
LEGO & other materials?
– from replication to uniqueness
– from literal models to metaphorical
models
• Connectionism (Papert) > learning
through making real models
• X is Y = metaphor (Aristotle) mixing
up the unexpected, finding
similarities in the unfamiliar
• “new understanding through
metaphors” (Schön)
image created using http://www.tagxedo.com/
We will experience thinking and creating with our hands

10. • Authentic learning (Herrington et al.,
2010)
• Creating and designing artefacts for
audiences (Hoban, 2009)
• ‘Learn more deeply from words and
picture than from words alone’ (Meyer,
2005:31)
The power of animation

11. Student feedback - animation
“Go animate was a new experience
which promoted group work and
research skills, it was an enjoyable
way to interact with peers and to
work together on a topic”.
“This animation was a lot more
enjoyable than an essay or a
presentation”
“I think this animation is a
fantastic idea and without it i
wouldn't have passed the
module I am normally not a very
academic student and having
dyslexia struggle to do essays this
animation allowed me to show
my creative side and I would
definitely recommend this you
carry on with this type of
assessment”
“I’m a L6 Social Care student and I took this unit last year – I really enjoyed this
assessment, but I would have loved an opportunity to have done it in form of an
animation... What a great new way of assessing students, and giving them a
chance to develop skills as well as demonstrating theoretical understanding!”

12. Criticality Creativity
Playfulness Imagination
Reflection
“Blending creativity and reflection, and infusing them with
qualities of imagination and play, creates a powerful cocktail
that enhances learning”. James & Brookfield (2014, 55)
A useful reminder: creative reflection (James & Brookfield, 2014, 54 )

13. Playground 1.o
supervised
Playground 2.0
participatory
Playground 3.0
self-determined
“What is stopping us from re-
imagining higher education as an
infinite number of playgrounds in
which we can play with ideas and
our own responses to such ideas
in ways that foster imaginative,
innovative or different ways of
thinking and action, which have
the potential to foster new
knowledge creation for the social
good? (Nerantzi, 2015, 42)
… putting it all together for the playshop using the Playground Model

14. Playground Pedagogy Three main theories of teaching (Ramsden,
2008)
Playground 1.0 supervised > feeling safe,
developing trust
Theory 1: Teaching as telling, transmission or
delivery - PASSIVE
Playground 2.0 participatory > gaining
playful confidence through guided playful
learning
Theory 2: Teaching as organising or
facilitating student activity - ACTIVE
Playground 3.0 self-determined > autonomy,
developing and sustaining play-active
practice
Theory 3: Teaching as making learning
possible – SELF-DIRECTED
Nerantzi, C. (2015) The Playground Model for Creative Professional Development, In: Nerantzi,
C. & James, A. (eds.) (2015) Exploring Play in Higher Education, Creative Academic Magazine,
Issue 2A, June 2015, pp. 40-50, available at http://www.creativeacademic.uk/

15. There will be bricks! Not just red ones! And not just plastic ones

16. We will make animations in the (digital) world. Get your smart devices
ready! Paper will be available too ;)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2860/9139221024_b9921bf74c_b.jpg

17. Themes for playstations
playstation 1: Making
playstation 2: Animating
playstation 3: Create a game
Sustainability Internationalisation
Inclusivity Creativity
Innovation Professionalism
Playstation themes

18. Warm-up (individually) 5 mins
1. Create a tower using a handful of real or digital bricks.
2. Add a little something to your model that makes it your
tower. Share your model with one other person.
Main play tasks using a snowballing technique: (15 mins)
1. Individual task (5 mins): Create an individual model that
visualises your thoughts around the theme you picked.
2. Mini-group task (5 mins): Share your model with a few
other individuals who have picked the same theme. What
do you notice?
3. Maxi-group task (5 mins): Collaborate with all groups who
explored the same theme and create a shared model that
brings your ideas together collectively.
Playstation 1: MAKING (instructions)
Build with Chrome at https://www.buildwithchrome.com/

19. Main task:
In groups create a storyboard that visualises your thoughts around the theme you
picked.
Using the sheets provided, decide what will be in each of the frames.
Will you use sound?
Using your smart devices, have a look at these programmes that can be used for
animation:
https://goanimate.com/
http://www.powtoon.com/
Playstation 2: ANIMATING (instructions)

20. 20 mins
Part 1 (10 mins)
In small groups of 4 pick a scenario and work
together to come up with a playful solution to help
this colleague. Could they explore learning through
making? Do you have any ideas based on
playstation 1 and 2 activities?
Part 2 (10 mins)
Construct an activity and share with another group.
Explain your rationale and comment on each
other’s solution.
Playstation 3: COULD PLAY HELP? DESIGN AN ACTIVITY (instructions)

21. scenario 1
“I employ teacher-focused methods
when I deliver lectures to large
groups of students. With a large
group of students, it is difficult to
be interactive.”

22. scenario 2
“I spend a lot of time putting materials
together for my seminars and I am really proud
of my PowerPoints. They look great. But I find
it hard to engage students during the
seminars. I want to share my passion for the
subject with them but am not sure how to do
this... it is mainly me talking and when I ask a
question, the endless silence makes me feel
very uncomfortable.”

23. Learning through
play at university?
They must be
mad!!!
Is this a bad thing?
I can’t wait!

24. “Play isn’t the enemy of
learning, it’s learning’s partner.
Play is like fertilizer for brain
growth. It’s crazy not to use it.”
(Brown, 2010, 101)

25. Find out more about animating and
student assessment:
https://animating4socialcare.wordpress.com
Join the LEGO in HE network founded
by Dr Alison James and Chrissi Nerantzi
https://plus.google.com/communities/10399461542400
6154336 also on Twitter @LEGOinHE

26. Brown, S. (2010) Play. How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and
invigorates the soul, London: Avery, Penguin.
James, A. R. (2013) Lego Serious Play: a three-dimensional approach to
learning development, in: Journal of Learning Development in Higher
Education, No. 6 (2013), available at
http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/ojs/index.php?journal=jldhe&page=article&op=vie
w&path%5B%5D=208&path%5B%5D=154
Gauntlett, D. (2011) Making is connecting. The social meaning of creativity,
from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web2.0, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C. & Oliver, R. (2010). A guide to authentic e-
learning. New York: Routledge.
Hoban, G., McDonald, D., and Ferry, B. (2009). Improving pre-service teachers'
science knowledge by creating, reviewing and publishing slowmations to
teacher tube. Paper presented at the Proceedings of Society for Information
Technology & Teacher Education International Conference Charlestown, SC.
[Online] [Accesssed on 25th February 2015]
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=edupapers
References 1/2

27. Meyer, T. (2005). ‘Introduction to Multimedia Learning’ in: R.Meyer (ed) The
Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Nerantzi, C. (2015) The Playground Model for Creative Professional
Development, In: Nerantzi, C. & James, A. (eds.) (2015) Exploring Play in
Higher Education, Creative Academic Magazine, Issue 2A, June 2015, pp. 40-
50, available at http://www.creativeacademic.uk/
Nerantzi, C. & James, A. (eds.) (2015) Exploring Play in Higher Education,
Creative Academic Magazine, Issue 2a, Issue 2b, June 2015, available at
http://www.creativeacademic.uk/magazine.html
Schön, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
References 2/2

28. Join us for 90 mins of
playful learning
on the 3rd of December in
Berlin! We will be in DES31
(16:15-17:30)
Dr Jenny Fisher & Chrissi Nerantzi